Syria: Thousands of digital activists to track how US-led air strikes destroyed Raqqa

The previous posts mentioned evidence of war crimes by the Rogue State against the defenseless civilians of Raqqa, Syria.

It is often overlooked or suppressed that it has a hoary record of mass murder and maiming of defenseless civilians and massive destruction in other countries, going back to the sanctimonious mass slaughter of civilians and burning of towns in its invasion of the Philippines during 1899 – 1902, to mention one among many instances.

A burnt district of Manila, Philippines 1899 Hispano-American war Washington. Library of Congress

Its extermination-devastation model, inclusive of tactics of mass dispossession and starvation, originally applied to the Native Americans, was applied against the hapless native Filipinos, and later again on impoverished peasant populations in Korea and Vietnam (instantiated in the war criminal bombings of dams in North Korea during the invasion of Korea, the Nixon-Kissinger directives to use “anything that flies against everything that moves” in Vietnam, “Shock and awe” tactics and “decapitation strikes” in Iraq, and so forth).

“Criminals Because They were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines” (New York Journal cartoon caption, May 5, 1902) This refers to the order given by Gen. Jacob Smith, or “Howling Wilderness Smith”, to execute all Filipino persons over the age of ten involved in any way in the resistance against the invading U.S. army.

Howling Wilderness Smith gave full proof of the nobility of the intentions of the invaders when he directed the commanding officer of U.S. Marines in the beleaguered Philippines island of Samar as follows:

“I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me… The interior of Samar must be made a howling wilderness…”

There were other exotic forms of treatment meted out to the resisting Filipinos, including the infamous “Water Cure”:

“”Cartoon depicting the application of the “water cure” by United States Army soldiers on a Filipino. In the background soldiers representing various European nations look on smiling. The Europeans say, “Those pious Yankees can’t throw stones at us any more”, meaning that the USA no longer has the moral standing to criticize European colonial practices.” (Cover of Life magazine, Vol. 39, #1021 first published on May 22, 1902)

Thanks to the scholarly work of Alfred McCoy, we now know that the U.S. designed and installed highly repressive modern police and intelligence state units as integral parts of its colonial regime in the Philippines, a precursor to the state surveillance system in the U.S. and elsewhere and a legacy which survives to this day in dictator Duterte’s “government” largely responsible for the ongoing human rights abuses and atrocities committed in the name of a horrendous “war on drugs”. As Noam Chomsky has pointed out in his review of McCoy’s book:

“This remarkable study provides a meticulous analysis of the novel colonial system developed by the U.S. in the Philippines after the murderous conquest, with startling implications for the shape of the modern world. As McCoy demonstrates, the U.S. occupation developed a major innovation in imperial practice, relying on the ‘information revolution’ of the day to establish intense surveillance and control of the occupied population, along with violence when needed and privileges to obedient elites. This ‘protracted social experiment in the use of police as an instrument of state power’ left a devastating legacy for the Philippines, while also contributing substantially to the modes of suppression of independence and social change elsewhere, and returning home to lay the foundations for a national security and surveillance state.”

Gen. Charles McCormick Reeve(1847 – 1947)

There were dissenting voices on the U.S. invasion and conquest of the Philippines. To his credit, Gen. Charles McCormick Reeve, who led the first column of U.S. forces engaged in the invasion and conquest of the Philippines into the fallen capital city of Manila, later condemned the U.S. invasion of the Philippines as “deplorable and unjustifiable” and declared that “this bloodshed, this necessity of conquering these poor wretches, might have been avoided“.

He also pointed out a crucial fact ignored by many news sources at the time, that a day after the start of the U.S. invasion and conquest of Philippines, on February 6, 1899, it was the U.S. commander Gen. Otis who rejected the proposal for truce and negotiations submitted by the Filipino Gen. Torres on behalf of Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, the great Filipino revolutionary leader. (Source: The Nation – New York – Thursday, May 4, 1899)

And there was the anti-imperialist Mark Twain’s posthumously published caustic comments on the Moro Massacre of 1906 (falsely described as a “battle” in the annals of U.S. military propaganda), the massacre of Filipino Moro Muslimswho did not want to fight and had fled, according to the testimony of Major Hugh Scott who was the governor in the Philippines Sulu province where the massacre occurred, to the volcanic crater of Bud Dajo:

“”In what way was it a battle? It has no resemblance to a battle … We cleaned up our four days’ work and made it complete by butchering these helpless people…

General Wood was present and looking on. His order had been, “Kill or capture those savages.” Apparently our little army considered that the “or” left them authorized to kill or capture according to taste, and that their taste had remained what it had been for eight years in our army out there–the taste of Christian butchers.”

To return to the present instantiation of its indelible pattern: the toll of the Rogue State’s military coalition assaults on Raqqa: the fact that at least 1600 civilians are dead and comparable numbers severely injured or maimed is gut-wrenching:

The Rogue State had raved that it was the “most precise air campaign in history”. The fact is that more than 80% of the city of Raqqa has been destroyed. Families sitting in front of their buildings were badly burned, or incinerated, or blown apart by white phosphorus munitions, missile attacks, or artillery shells unleashed by the Rogue State and its infernal agents. It’s a clear case of callous mass destruction of the city. Nothing has been done to rebuild it since the cessation of the military coalition assaults against it led by the U.S. The surviving family members of the incinerated, decapitated, or maimed victims have received no compensation. It is just another gruesome chapter in the horror novel the Rogue State has been writing on the backs of its victims since its inception in slavery and the extermination of Native Americans.

AIUSA Appoints New Executive Director Margaret Huang

Margaret Huang, the current executive director of Amnesty International USA, who recently visited Raqqa, points out in an interview on Democracy Now that only the U.S. military coalition wielded air power (thousands of air strikes) and artillery force (U.S.troops fired more artillery at Raqqa than anywhere since the invasion of Vietnam). There was no other force involved in the assault on Raqqa which had access to such means of destruction. Hence, it bears responsibility for the large number of civilian casualties and injuries and the huge scale of destruction in the city:

“The situation in Raqqa is truly extraordinary. The level of destruction that we’ve seen, that is on the ground today, is unprecedented in many, many ways. More than 80% of the city has been destroyed by the U.S. strikes.

And what’s most compelling about Raqqa is that there was only one party in this conflict that had airstrikes and that used artillery, and that is the U.S. coalition. In many other conflict zones, it can be very difficult and time-consuming to determine which party was responsible for which aspects of destruction. But in Raqqa, it’s pretty straightforward, because only one side of the conflict had access to those munitions.”

Given its track record of callous destruction and mass murder, it is unlikely that the Rogue State will heed Amnesty’s praiseworthy call for reparations, but a strong campaign for reparations to the surviving family members, many of whom are still living in buildings with severe structural damage due to massive U.S. bombings, of the victims of its war criminal assaults on the city of Raqqa must be supported by all concerned groups of decent human beings in the U.S. and other countries.

]]>thillraghuImage result for burned out Philippines towns in the Philippine-American warImage result for Mark Twain anti-imperialistImage result for Margaret HuangThe Rogue State Performs Mass Auto-da-fé in Syria!https://chomskyiteperspectives.com/2017/06/12/the-rogue-state-performs-mass-auto-da-fe-in-syria/
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 17:09:13 +0000http://chomskyiteperspectives.com/?p=372Continue reading →]]>

It is noteworthy that Admiral Leahy strongly condemned the use of atomic weapons against the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

He wrote in his memoirs that:

“It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons… My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make wars in that fashion, and that wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”

Victims of a US-directed napalm attack on a Vietnamese village. Since the beginning of the invasion of South Vietnam initiated by the great leader John F. Kennedy, the rogue state used planes with South Vietnamese markings. These were American planes carrying American bombs, including napalm.

US-led forces accused of dropping white phosphorous on Raqqa

“US-led forces in Syria have been accused of dropping white phosphorous on districts in eastern Raqqa…Raqqa is Being Saughtered Silently, an anti-Isil campaign group, has also released similar images on social media.

The use of white phosphorous in densely populated areas is banned under international law, though military forces are allowed to use it to create smoke screens.

Similar to napalm, white phosphorus causes agonising and potentially deadly chemical burns which have been known to melt skin off the bone.”

U.S.-led forces appear to be using white phosphorus in populated areas in Iraq and Syria

“The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria appears to have used white phosphorus-loaded munitions on at least two occasions in densely populated areas of Mosul and in the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa, according to videos posted online and human rights groups.

The often-controversial munitions are common in western militaries and are used primarily to create smoke screens, though they can also be dropped as an incendiary weapon. When a white phosphorus shell explodes, the chemical inside reacts with the air, creating a thick white cloud. When it comes in contact with flesh, it can maim and kill by burning to the bone.

While international humanitarian law stipulates that civilians must be protected from all military operations, it also says that countries must take even more care when using white phosphorus. Additionally, because of the weapon’s ability to cause grievous and inhumane injuries, rights groups caution against using white phosphorus to kill enemy troops if other weapons are available.”

U.S.-Led Forces Said to Have Used White Phosphorus in Syria

“Images and reports from witnesses in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa suggest that the United States-led coalition battling the Islamic State there has used munitions loaded with white phosphorus, the use of which in populated areas is prohibited under international law.

Photographs and video clips posted online showed blinding spots of light spreading outward on Thursday night over what residents said was eastern Raqqa. By day, the images showed low white puffs trailing tentacles of white smoke. Both are typical visual signatures of white phosphorus, which can be loaded into artillery shells.

Residents reached by text message reported similar bombardments on Friday.

Tens of thousands of civilians are believed to still be in Raqqa, even as many Islamic State leaders have fled south to Mayadeen in Deir al-Zour Province. Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, warned that 40,000 children are believed to be trapped in the city.

Residents said that most of the Islamic State fighters left in Raqqa were local recruits, along with some foreign fighters, and that the most experienced commanders and fighters having decamped.

Abdullah, a Raqqa resident living in Beirut, said his relatives had seen what they believed was white phosphorus being used in the city. He also said that an internet cafe had recently been hit by missiles, killing around 20 people who were trying to reach relatives for possibly the last time after the Islamic State threatened to shut down all internet providers.

One of those killed in the cafe was an activist sending a report to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, according to the group’s founder, Rami Abdulrahman.”

The rogue state’s love affair with infernal weapons, such as napalm, white phosphorus, and hell-fire missiles, not to mention atomic bombs, to bring about the mass incineration or auto-da-fé of those it condemns as heretics, i.e., those who oppose its criminal policies and actions, those who want to pursue an independent path, and those it deems their sympathizers, including bystanders and neighbors, has a distinguished history.

Noteworthy are the chapters of this sordid romance of the rogue state with the instruments of mass auto-da-fé in Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki in Japan, in Korea during the Korean war, Vietnam, Iraq, and now in Raqqa, Syria.

Wikipedia entry on this terror campaign of mass incineration of Japanese civilians states:

“On the night of 9–10 March (“Operation Meetinghouse”),[12]334 B-29s took off to raid with 279 of them dropping 1,665 tons of bombs on Tokyo.The bombs were mostly the 500-pound (230 kg) E-46 cluster bomb which released 38 napalm-carrying M-69 incendiary bomblets at an altitude of 2,000–2,500 ft (610–760 m). The M-69s punched through thin roofing material or landed on the ground; in either case they ignited 3–5 seconds later, throwing out a jet of flaming napalm globs. A lesser number of M-47 incendiaries was also dropped: the M-47 was a 100-pound (45 kg) jelled-gasoline and white phosphorus bomb which ignited upon impact. In the first two hours of the raid, 226 of the attacking aircraft unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the city’s fire defenses.[13] The first B-29s to arrive dropped bombs in a large X pattern centered in Tokyo’s densely populated working class district near the docks in both Koto and Chuocity wards on the water; later aircraft simply aimed near this flaming X. The individual fires caused by the bombs joined to create a general conflagration, which would have been classified as a firestorm but for prevailing winds gusting at 17 to 28 mph (27 to 45 km/h).[14] Approximately 15.8 square miles (4,090 ha) of the city were destroyed and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died.[15][16]“

Here is a glimpse of the mass auto-da-fé of Japanese civilians (at least 100,000 Japanese civilians were incinerated in one night of terror firebombing) carried out by the rogue state in its terror firebombing campaign (“Operation Meetinghouse”) against Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945.

Charred remains of Japanese civilians after the US firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March 1945.

Victims of the US firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March 1945: The charred body of a Japanese woman who was carrying a child on her back

Any human being, not bereft of an elementary capacity for empathy (“human being” is a dubious designation in the case of those bereft of this elementary capacity of empathy) ought to be able to imagine what the civilians (the victims of ISIS!) in Raqqa, Syria, are now undergoing in the face of the rogue state’s latest assault against them with outlawed weapons of mass incineration.

The hypocrisy (The hypocrite, as Jesus defined it in the Gospels, is the one who does not apply to himself the standard he applies to others) of the US political elite, which condemns the recent deaths of children due to chemical weapons allegedly used by the forces of the state terrorist Assad government in Syria while turning a blind eye to the heinous crimes of US terror bombings in areas congested with civilians in Syria and Iraq, is truly a blinding case of “American exceptionalism”!

300,000 Civilians Have Fled Mosul, as U.S. Strikes Reportedly Kill More Civilians

Apr 05, 2017

“The United Nations says more than 300,000 Iraqi civilians have fled Mosul amid the ongoing U.S. and Iraqi militaries’ offensive to retake the city from ISIS. The journalistic monitoring group Airwars reports U.S.-led coalition airstrikes have reportedly killed and injured more civilians in recent days. One U.S.-led coalition strike on the Yarmouk neighborhood of west Mosul reportedly killed three members of the same family on Sunday. Another strike, believed to be carried out by the U.S.-backed Iraqi military, reportedly hit a funeral procession in the Farouk neighborhood, also on Sunday. Airwars says U.S.-led coalition airstrikes reportedly killed hundreds of civilians in Mosul last month, including airstrikes on March 17 that killed up to 200 civilians.”

It is not surprising to anyone familiar with the US record on these matters that the vast majority of these victims of US terror airstrikes are civilians who were oppressed by the very groups the rogue US state claims to be targeting.

More Than 1,000 Civilians Reportedly Killed by U.S.-Led Airstrikes as Trump Expands War on Terror

“Details are emerging about U.S.-led coalition airstrikes that are believed to have killed over 200 people in a single day in Iraq. The U.S.-led coalition has admitted launching airstrikes on March 17 targeting a crowded neighborhood in Mosul. They are among the deadliest U.S. airstrikes in the region since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. According to some reports, one of these strikes destroyed houses where hundreds of people were taking refuge amid the city’s heavy fighting. Up to 80 civilians, including women and children, may have died in one house’s basement alone. This bombing is just one of an onslaught of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that has killed as many as 1,000 civilians in March alone, according to the journalistic project Airwars.”

There is no protection for civilians around the globe from the savagery of the rogue US killing machine if the rest of the world fails to create international legal institutions with powers of prosecution and punishment to stop or slow down this killing machine in its tracks soaked with the blood of innocents! The US populace must also organize and act to prevent its government from engaging in these campaigns of mass murder in the Middle East.

Only international legal institutions with powers of enforcement and punishment can stop these lawless and savage assaults by homicidal gangsters, acting on behalf of a rogue US state and killing machine, on civilians in distant lands! The US populace must also organize and act to prevent its government from engaging in these campaigns of mass murder in the Middle East.

“At least 30 Syrian civilians were killed in an airstrike by the United States-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in a rural area of Raqqa Province early Tuesday, according to residents, activists and state television.

The United States-led coalition said it had no indications an airstrike had hit civilians, but in its daily report on coalition strikes, the United States military acknowledged that strikes were carried out in the area. It said that on Tuesday, coalition warplanes carried out 19 airstrikes — an unusually high number for a single day — on a range of Islamic State facilities near the city of Raqqa.

The attack, which hit a school in the town of Mansoura, where civilians had taken shelter Tuesday night, was the second time in a week that Syrians had accused the United States of involvement in a strike that killed dozens of noncombatants.

Forty-nine people died last week when American warplanes fired on a target in Al Jinah, a village in western Aleppo Province. United States officials said the attack had hit a building where Qaeda operatives were meeting, but residents said the warplanes had struck a mosque where hundreds of people had gathered for a weekly religious meeting.

The two airstrikes have raised concerns about whether the United States military has become less careful, or less selective, in its targeting. President Trump repeatedly said during his campaign that he would loosen restrictions intended to protect civilians during attacks against the Islamic State and other extremist groups.”

“Defense officials had acknowledged that the building hit in the March 16 airstrike was near a mosque…

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 49 people had been killed in what the monitoring group described as a “massacre” of civilians who were participating in religious instruction. Residents have described the building as an assembly hall and dining area for worshipers who gathered for religious lessons, and have produced photographs taken at the site after the strike that show a black sign outside a still-standing adjoining structure that identifies it as part of the Omar ibn al-Khatab mosque.“

]]>thillraghuImage result for George Orwell quote on peopleWestern Barbarians Kill Women and Children in Afghanistan!https://chomskyiteperspectives.com/2017/02/13/western-savages-kill-women-and-children-in-afghanistan/
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 07:55:48 +0000http://chomskyiteperspectives.com/?p=265Continue reading →]]>

U.N.: 26 People Killed in NATO & U.S. Airstrikes, the Majority Women & Children

Headlines Feb 13, 2017

“In Afghanistan, at least 26 people died in U.S. and NATO-led airstrikes in Helmand Province last week. The United Nations says the majority of victims were women and children. The deadliest strikes were on Thursday and Friday, when as many as 18 civilians, the majority women and children, were killed.”

The savage Western military powers have murdered 26 civilians, a majority of whom were women and children, in yet another unlawful and atrocious series of airstrikes on dirt poor villages in Afghanistan.

What did these unsuspecting villagers living in abject poverty do to the demonic barbarian Western gang in three-piece suits and uniforms which planned and executed the vicious murders from the air?

Nothing at all, except that, as George Orwell would point out, they were in the category of “unpeople” or people whose lives don’t count in the pathological calculus of the murderous barbarian Western gang in three-piece suits and uniforms.

However, the wheel of karma turns slowly but unerringly, and he who is the jubilant perpetrator today will inexorably become the hapless victim tomorrow.

]]>thillraghuH8 afghanistanImage result for George Orwell quote on peopleUS Navy Seal Team Kills Women and Children in Yemen!https://chomskyiteperspectives.com/2017/01/31/mass-murder-by-us-navy-seal-team-6-in-yemen/
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 04:26:59 +0000http://chomskyiteperspectives.com/?p=248Continue reading →]]>

“Why kill children?,” the grandfather asked.

The US government has added to its heinous record of mass murder of innocent peoples overseas with this latest episode of the slaughter of dozens of civilians including many women and children in a raid (these raids are characteristically in flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter, not to mention elementary moral requirements) by the US Navy Seal Team 6 on a village in impoverished Yemen on Sunday, Jan 29, 2017.

“The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports the assault killed nine children under the age of 13, with five other children wounded.”

The morally deformed mindset of US political elites is evident in the following remarks by Sen. John McCain who has been touted as some kind of a courageous critic of the criminal raid which slaughtered children:

“When you lose a $75 million airplane, and, more importantly, American lives are—a life is lost, and wounded, I don’t believe that you can call it a success.”

Indeed, it takes stupendous moral courage to condemn the dastardly raid on the grounds that it led to the loss of a $ 75 million plane and the loss of the life of ONE American soldier who participated in the criminal military raid!

Of course, the lives of the nine children under the age of 13 who were murdered in the raid, not to mention the five children who were probably severely wounded, do not count in the morally abhorrent and aberrant mindset of US political elites and their servile apologists in the mainstream media and the academe.

As George Orwell would put it, these victims of unlawful US aggression were “unpeople”, and, therefore, do not count in the pathological calculus of US political elites.

Abdulrahman and his sister, whom some news agencies identified as Nora Anwar al-Awlaki, were children of the U.S.-born Yemeni preacher and alleged al Qaida associate Anwar al-Awlaki. The U.S. killed Anwar in Yemen two weeks before killing Abdulrahman.

Glenn Greenwald writes at The Intercept:

… reports from Yemen quickly surfaced that 30 people were killed, including 10 women and children. Among the dead: the 8-year-old granddaughter of Nasser al-Awlaki, who was also the daughter of Anwar Awlaki.

As noted by my colleague Jeremy Scahill – who extensively interviewed the grandparents in Yemen for his book and film on Obama’s “Dirty Wars” – the girl was “was shot in the neck and killed,” bleeding to death over the course of two hours. “Why kill children?,” the grandfather asked. “This is the new (U.S.) administration – it’s very sad, a big crime.”

The New York Times yesterday reported that military officials had been planning and debating the raid for months under the Obama administration, but Obama officials decided to leave the choice to Trump. The new President personally authorized the attack last week. They claim that the “main target” of the raid “was computer materials inside the house that could contain clues about future terrorist plots.” The paper cited a Yemeni official saying that “at least eight women and seven children, ages 3 to 13, had been killed in the raid,” and that the attack also “severely damaged a school, a health facility and a mosque.”

After observing that, just as in Iraq, “Al Qaeda had very little presence in Yemen before the Obama administration began bombing and droning it and killing civilians, thus driving people into the arms of the militant group,” Greenwald quotes remarks that the late, young Yemeni writer Ibrahim Mothana made to Congress in 2013:

Drone strikes are causing more and more Yemenis to hate America and join radical militants . . . Unfortunately, liberal voices in the United States are largely ignoring, if not condoning, civilian deaths and extrajudicial killings in Yemen.

During George W. Bush’s presidency, the rage would have been tremendous. But today there is little outcry, even though what is happening is in many ways an escalation of Mr. Bush’s policies. . . .

Defenders of human rights must speak out. America’s counterterrorism policy here is not only making Yemen less safe by strengthening support for A.Q.A.P. [al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula] but it could also ultimately endanger the United States and the entire world.

Greenwald continues:

This is why it is crucial that – as urgent and valid protests erupt against Trump’s abuses – we not permit recent history to be whitewashed, or long-standing U.S. savagery to be deceitfully depicted as new Trumpian aberrations, or the War on Terror framework engendering these new assaults to be forgotten. Some current abuses are unique to Trump, but – as I detailed on Saturday – some are the decades-old by-product of a mindset and system of war and executive powers that all need uprooting. Obscuring these facts, or allowing those responsible to posture as opponents of all this, is not just misleading but counter-productive: much of this resides on an odious continuum and did not just appear out of nowhere.

Relatives of the victims of the downed Iran Air 655 gather to remember and mourn the event

Bodies of passengers on Iran Air 655 can be seen floating to the water surface. Relatives of the dead at a memorial in Dubai the day after the Iran Air jet was shot down by the a US warship. Phot. (L) Iran State Television

Iranian siblings cry as they await news of their parents who were supposed to be on Iran Air flight 655.

David Carlson was the commanding officer of the USS Sides which was operating in a supporting role in the vicinity of the USS Vincennes and closely monitoring the escalating situation when the Vincennes launched its heinous missile attack on Iran Air 655 on July 3, 1988, which killed all 290 passengers, 66 of them children.

Commander Carlson later wrote an account of what had transpired in the course of the missile attack on Iran Air 655. His account of the events leading to the missile attack on Iran Air 655 was given in his article “The Vincennes Incident” published in the September 1989 issue of the Proceedings of the U. S. Naval Institute.

Carlson criticizes the official apologetic for the downing of Iran Air 655 in terms of the appeal to mistakes made in the “fog of war”. He concludes that “View it as you will, Iran Air flight 655 was shot down for no good reason.”

Before we look at Carlson’s account of the sequence of events leading up to the missile attack on Iran 655 by the USS Vincennes, we must consider the relevant background episode, Operation Praying Mantis, which occurred in April 1988, a few months before the criminal downing of Iran Air 655, and the overall context of US attacks on Iranian oil platforms and naval assets in the Persian Gulf.

As Chomsky points out in his piece “Outrage“, the Reagan administration solidly backed the brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his criminal war of aggression against Iran.

Reagan removed Saddam from the terrorist list and showered him with military aid to enable his aggression against Iran. He also blocked congressional condemnations of Saddam’s crimes against the Kurds. Worse, under Reagan’s patronage, Saddam even got away with a missile attack on the USS Stark which killed 37 US sailors!

USS Stark after being hit by two 1500 pounds Exocet missiles fired from an Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 on May 17, 1987, in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Saudi Arabia

As Chomsky writes:

“It is worth remembering the extent of Washington’s devotion to its friend Saddam. Reagan removed him from the terrorist list so that aid could be sent to expedite his assault on Iran, and later denied his murderous crimes against the Kurds, blocking congressional condemnations. He also accorded Saddam a privilege otherwise granted only to Israel: there was no notable reaction when Iraq attacked the USS Stark with missiles, killing 37 crewmen, much like the case of the USS Liberty, attacked repeatedly by Israeli jets and torpedo ships in 1967, killing 34 crewmen.

It is in the context of the Reagan administration’s increasing support for the brutal dictatorship of Saddam and his criminal aggression against Iran that we must understand the US military aggressionOperation Praying Mantis against the Iranian navy and oil platforms in Iranian territorial waters in April 1988 and how it paved the way for the “trigger happy” mood aboard the USS Vincennes as it targeted and downed Iran Air 655.

As Commander Carlson put it:

“Who among us did not feel just a little cheated at having missed out on a chance to have been a part of Praying Mantis? I suspect that in the Vincennes these feelings ran very strong.”

However, we should note that the International Court of Justice ruled on November 6, 2003, that the US military aggression “Operation Praying Mantis” carried out against Iran in April 1988, and its predecessor “Operation Nimble Archer” in October 1987, “cannot be justified as measures necessary to protect the essential security interests of the United States of America.”

This ICJ judgment implies that both military operations were acts of aggression against Iran and in flagrant violation of international law and norms of conduct governing the actions of States, but, unfortunately, these forms of aggression and violation of international law are consistent with the Mafia-style US policy and intervention in the region and elsewhere.

Operation Praying Mantis targeted Iranian oil platforms and the puny Iranian navy in Iranian territorial waters. Consistent with the US military record of tactics of savage overkill and destruction by overwhelming force, the much-vaunted and pathological “shock and awe” tactics, the Iranian Sassan oil platform was attacked with overwhelming military force on April 18, 1988.

The US aggression in Iranian territorial waters against the puny Iranian navy, and the Iranian oil platforms and their pitiful defense resources and personnel, was mounted jointly by several groups of warships, including the destroyers USS Merrill and USS Lynde McCormick, aircraft from the USS Enterprise and USS Truxtun, the LAMPS helicopter detachment from USS Samuel B. Roberts, the Marine Air Ground Task Force from the USS Trenton, the guided missile cruiser USS Wainwright, the guided missile armed destroyer USS Joseph Strauss, the frigates USS Simpson and USS Bagley, and Navy SEALS!!!

In response, Iranian Boghammerspeedboats attacked a few ships in the Persian Gulf. The US dispatched A-6E Intruder aircraft which dropped Rockeye cluster bombs on the Iranian speedboats!

Rockeye cluster bombs are designed to destroy tanks! Each of them carry 247 bomblets! Again, savagery is the governing standard of these US military operations.

A Rockeye immediately after opening, showing the 247 bomblets.

Operation Praying Mantis also targeted the Iranian combat craft Joshan and sank it. Two Iranian F-4 Phantom fighters which were orbiting 48 kms away from the scene were attacked by missiles launched by the USS Wainwright. One of them was badly damaged and the pilot landed his plane at Bandar Abbas airport, the same airport from which the doomed Iran Air 655 was to depart a few months later.

The Iranian frigate Sahand was attacked and sunk in Iranian territorial waters when it engaged with two Lizard A-6Es which were on combat patrol for USS Joseph Strauss.

Iranian frigate Sahand burning from bow to stern on 18 April 1988 after being attacked by US forces.

Another Iranian frigate Sabalan also engaged several A-6Es in Iranian territorial waters. It was attacked with a Mark 82 laser-guided bomb which severely damaged and crippled the frigate.

At least 56 Iraniansdieddefending themselves against the overwhelming aggression of Operation Praying Mantis. The only US casualties were two marines killed when their Sea Cobra helicopter gunship crashed in the Persian Gulf due to reasons unrelated to combat.

It is against this backdrop that Commander Carlson wants us to understand the aggressive and criminally negligent actions pertaining to Iran Air 655 taken aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes which was sent to the Persian Gulf to protect the frigate Samuel B. Roberts as it was hauled back to the US after hitting a mine. To quote him again:

“Who among us did not feel just a little cheated at having missed out on a chance to have been a part of Praying Mantis? I suspect that in the Vincennes these feelings ran very strong.

Having watched the performance of the Vincennes for a month before the incident (shooting down of Iran Air 655), my impression was clearly that an atmosphere of restraint was not her long suit. Her actions appeared to be consistently aggressive…”Robo Cruiser” was the unamusing nickname that someone jokingly came up with for her and it stuck.”

Carlson disputes the official story on the shooting down of Iran Air 655 on several points.

First, it was claimed that a few Iranian speedboats were intent on attacking the USS Vincennes and USS Elmer Montgomery.

Carlson points out the absurdity of supposing that the Iranian speedboats would do this given their knowledge of the overwhelming force used by the US navy in Operation Praying Mantis.

It was also claimed in the official story that the Iranian speedboats fired at the LAMPS III helicopter sent on patrol from the Vincennes.The helicopter did return safely to the Vincennes before the ship engaged in aggressive actions against the Iranian speedboats.

Carlson argues that the Vincennes helicopter was probably too close to the Iranian speedboats (We should remember that the Iranian speedboats were in their own territorial waters!) and that they were known to fire warning shots at helicopters to keep them away. He also points out that if the Iranian speedboats had intended to attack the Vincennes and Elmer Montgomery, they would not have fired warning shots at the helicopter and alerted the ships.

“Robo Cruiser” Vincennes used the warning shots fired at its helicopter by the Iranian speedboats as a pretext for attacking those speedboats. It was the Vincennes which first opened fire on the Iranian speedboats in Iranian territorial waters after her helicopter had come back safely.

According to the official story, both the Vincennes and Elmer Montgomery stopped engaging the Iranian speedboats when they ceased to pose a threat to the US ships, but Carlson points out that the Iranian speedboats never posed a threat to the ships even when the latter (Vincennes and Elmer Montgomery) closed the position of the small speedboats at high speed 50 minutes earlier.

Carlson also points out that the Vincennes was not acting in self-defense because it had asked for permission to shoot at the Iranian speedboats, permission that would not be necessary if the ship was acting in self-defense.

Carlson writes:

“The harder you look at it, the more absurd the concept seems that a few speedboats would be taking on the Vincennes and the Elmer Montgomery with any notion of success. In any event, they would surely not want to alert the Vincennes by shooting at the helicopter. I hold a minority view. The helicopter drew fire because it was a nuisance to the IRGC boats.The Vincennes saw an opportunity for action, and pressed hard for Commander Middle East Force to give permission to fire.Deescalation went out the window. Equipment failed. The “fog” rolled in…”

It is in this context that Carlson’s tactical action officer (TAO) informed him that radar track TN 4131 (referring to Iran Air 655) had been classified as an Iranian F-14 threat by the Vincennes.

Carlson writes that he followed standard procedures and “locked up and illuminated TN 4131 with our missile fire control radar.” But the aircraft continued climbing and was on a southwesterly course that would bring it directly over the location of the Vincennes.

Carlson assumed that the Vincennes had correctly identified track TN 4131 as an Iranian F-14. However, given its range and altitude, lack of antisurface warfare capability, and lack of radar emissions, Carlson says that he “evaluated the track as a nonthreat.”

Carlson also observes that “TN 4131 did not appear to react to the illumination with fire control radar, and this was most unusual.” Obviously, an F-14 fighter interceptor would react appropriately to such radar targeting.

At this point, the Vincennes, under the command of Captain Will Rogers III, announced that it would take down TN 4131 at 20 miles with its missiles.

Carlson says that he “wondered aloud with disbelief” at this announcement, but did not take the steps to dissuade the Vincennes from shooting down TN 4131. He had assumed that the Vincennes had the correct information to justify shooting the aircraft down.

Carlson later realized that “This was bad reasoning. TN 4131 was destroyed before I was made aware that it was not an F-14.”

According to Carlson, the salient facts in this situation were:

1. When the decision was made by Captain Will Rogers III to shoot down TN 4131, it was climbing, not descending or diving. If it was an Iranian F-14 intent on some surface (suicidal) action against a US missile cruiser, it would be descending or diving. (This should have given pause to any responsible Captain, but we are, after all, dealing with the Captain of “Robo Cruiser”!)

2. It was showing proper identification: IFF Mode III.

3. It was in the proper flight corridor for civilian aircraft going from Bandar Abbas to Dubai.

We should also consider in this context the relevant facts on Iran’s F-14 force.

The F-14 is a fighter interceptor and carries anti-aircraft missiles.The Imperial Iranian Air Force, under the Shah of Iran who wielded autocratic and brutal power as the monarch of Iran after a US and UK-backed coup d’état overthrew the democratically elected regime of Mosadeggh in August 1953, was offered the latest in American military technology by President Richard Nixon after his visit to Iran in 1972.

In 1974, the Shah of Iran placed an order for the purchase of dozens of F-14 aircraft and hundreds of Phoenix anti-aircraft missiles, all worthUS $ 300 million.

Unlike the Dassault Mirage F1 Iraqi jet which attacked, during Saddam’s brutal war against Iran, the USS Stark in May 1987 and killed 37 US Navy personnel, the F-14 is a fighter interceptor and not capable of mounting any significant attack on surface targets, especially ships.

So, even if TN 4131 was likely to be an Iranian F-14, given the clear evidence that it was ascending and not descending or diving, the judgment that it posed a threat and should be shot down with missiles was a belligerent one and the missile attack an unjustified act of aggression.

Since the other salient facts, available to the crew of Vincennes at the time of the missile attack, showed that track TN 4131 was unlikely to be an F-14, and probably a civilian airliner, the decision to shoot it down without further assessment was an unpardonable act of criminal negligence, if not terrorism.

Commander Carlson has offered his explanation for the lethal action of the Vincennes against Iran Air 655 on July 3, 1988:

“My guess was that the crew of the Vincennes felt a need to prove the viability of Aegis (Aegis Combat System based on computer and radar technology and produced by Lockheed Martin) in the Persian Gulf, and that they hankered for an opportunity to show their stuff. This, I believe, was the climate that aided in generating the “fog”.”

Large screen displays on USS Vincennes, circa 1988.

In the annals of official US propaganda and history, it does not matter that this Rambo-style hankering to “show our stuff” cost the lives of 290 Iranians, 66 of them children.

It is also revealing that Carlson observes that “…despite the numerous articles written on the subject, not one request for information has come our way.”

And what about the Captain of “Robo Cruiser” responsible for the distinguished act of valor of shooting down a civilian airliner with 290 passengers, 66 of them children?

He remained in command of the Vincennes until May 27, 1989. In 1990, he was given the Legion of Merit award for “exceptionally meritorious conduct as commanding officer (of the Vincennes)” and for maintaining a “calm and professional atmosphere” during the missile attack on Iran Air 655, although the award citation did not make any reference to the atrocious incident.

Captain Will Rogers speaking at a USS Vincennes welcome home ceremony

The US government has never formally apologized to Iran for the downing of Iran Air 655 by its naval forces.

We can only stand in awe of such display of American exceptionalism!

“Pictured here, Newsweek covers for 12 September 1983 (left) and 18 July 1988 (right) that illustrate KAL and Iran Air incidents respectively. A full-page photo of the airplane with “Murder in the Air” (KAL incident) leaves little doubt in reader’s mind of who the culprits were, while “Why it Happened” (Iran Air incident) with no graphic presentation of the airplane is accompanied by questioning and soul-searching.” (Wikipedia)

I first read Noam Chomsky’s works as an undergraduate. At that time, I had a strong interest in the philosophy of language. I became familiar with the book Language and Responsibility, based on conversations between Chomsky and Mitsou Ronat on linguistics and politics. I also purchased a copy of the book Language and Learning, edited by Massimio Piattelli-Palmarini, which contains riveting presentations and discussions by Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky, among others, on the process of language learning.

In 1987, I was working on my Master’s thesis on Marx’s Theory of Ideology and read Chomsky’s writings on the manufacturing of public consent by means of mass media propaganda.

The epigraph of my Master’s thesis was drawn from the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679). Perhaps, Marx and Chomsky would both concur with the spirit of Hobbes’remark if not its letter.

Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)

“For I doubt not, but if it had been a thing contrary to…the interest of men that have dominion, that the three angles of a triangle should be equal to two angles of a square; that doctrine should have been, if not disputed, yet by the burning of all books of Geometry, suppressed, as far as he whom it concerned was able.” (Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan)

In the Fall of 1988, Chomsky visited McMaster University to give a talk on the propaganda model of the workings of mass media. This model was developed by NoamChomsky and Edward Herman. It was exhaustively explained and argued for in their book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy Of The Mass Media.

I attended his talk and asked a question about what I thought was an anomaly for his propaganda model of the mass media: the extensive American media coverage of theshooting down of the Iranian civilian airliner, Iran Air 655, on July 3, 1988, over the waters of the Persian Gulf by the USS Vincennes, a guided missile cruiser of the US Navy.

All 290 people on board, including 66 children, perished. 254 passengers were Iranians.

Iran Air Flight 655

A missile departs the forward launcher of Vincennes during a 1987 exercise. The forward launcher was also used in the downing of Iran Air 655.

Locator map showing Iran Air 655’s origination point, destination, and approximate position when it was shot down by missiles fired from the USS Vincennes.

Ronald Reagan and George Bush (President and Vice-President, respectively, in 1988)

“I will never apologize for the United States — I don’t care what the facts are... I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.” (Vice-PresidentGeorge Bush, on Aug 2 1988, on the shooting down of Iran Air 655 by the USS Vincennes)

“On July 3, 1988, the USS VINCENNES and USS ELMER MONTGOMERYwere operating in international waters of the Persian Gulfnear the Strait of Hormuz…As the VINCENNES and MONTGOMERY were approaching the group of Iranian small boats at approximately 1042 local time, at least four of the small boats turned toward and began closing in on the American warships. At this time, both American ships opened fire on the small craft, sinking two and damaging a third.

Regrettably, in the course of the U.S. response to the Iranian attack, an Iranian civilian airliner was shot down by the VINCENNES, which was firing in self defense at what it believed to be a hostile Iranian military aircraft.” (President Ronald Reagan, in a letter to Jim Wright, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Senator John C. Stennis, President pro tempore of the Senate.)

I asked Chomsky how he accounted for the anomaly of the prominent coverage of this horrible event, in the mainstream US media, in terms of his propaganda model.

In posing that question to Chomsky, I was assuming that his propaganda model of mass media would rule out this sort of prominent coverage (since it predicts that mainstream US media will minimize or eschew coverage of the crimes of the US government and military and give prominence of coverage to the crimes of actual or perceived enemy regimes and their armed forces) of an incident which further undermined US standing in the region.

I still vividly recall Chomsky’s reply to my question.

His answer was that the downing of Iran Air 655 was a good example, but that the nature of the coverage, inclusive of the spin or commentary by pundits in the mainstream American media, of that atrocious incident pointed to a different conclusion than that it was an anomaly for the propaganda model of the mass media.

In other words, extended coverage, or prominence of coverage, in the mainstream mass media, of the crimes of one’s own government and/or military is consistent with the propaganda model if that sort of media coverage is simply an effective means of propagating the official government commentary, interpretation, and justification of the event(s) in question.

In short, such extended or prominent US mainstream mass media coverage of the crimes of the US government and military actually seeks to whitewash and portray those crimes as essentially non-criminal in nature, e.g., self-defense, justified retaliation, blunders, or “tragic mistakes”, and so forth.

Thus, in terms of the Chomsky-Herman propaganda model, we should not only look at the extent of coverage of an issue in the mainstream media, but also at the framework of the prevalent commentary, or interpretation and justification, in which that coverage is embedded.

In fact, the coverage and commentary in the mainstream American media, notably the New York Times, ABC Network, and so on, faithfully repeated and reiterated the official position on the shooting down of Iran Air 655 and the official justification of the expansion of American military forces in the Persian Gulf, using the very incident of the shooting down of Iran Air 655 by the USS Vincennes as a pretext for the military expansion!

Initially, both the NY Times and ABC reported, with characteristic servility, the Pentagon’s account of the incident with its distortions of three salient facts: the distortion of the fact that the USS Vincennes was actually in Iranian waters at the time of the shooting, the distortion of the fact that all the electronic data on the ship showed that the plane was ascending, and the distortion of the fact that electronic data showed that the plane was a commercial airliner and not a military aircraft.

Needless to say, the Iranian government’s account of the incident did not merit a single mention in the initial reports by the NY Times and ABC.

(Note: Admiral William Crowe acknowledged belatedly, i.e., three years after the shooting down of Iran Air 655, in an interview with Ted Koppel on ABC’s Nightline, that the USS Vincennes was in Iranian territorial waters at the time it launched missiles to destroy the Iranian aircraft!

A report (Part I was released in 1988 and Part II in 1993) by Admiral William Fogarty stated that “The data from USS Vincennes tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [Iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from take-off at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down”.)

However, neither of these admissions acknowledged the criminal negligence involved in the shooting down of Iran Air 655 and still sought to justify the response of the USS Vincennes.

Thus, the coverage of the Iran Air 655 incident was not an anomaly for the Chomsky-Herman propaganda model because the mainstream media repeated with abject servility the official propaganda justifying the shooting down of the Iranian passenger jet by the Vincennes.

Further, consistent with the Chomsky-Herman propaganda model of the mass media, the accompanying “spin” or commentary in the mainstream American media on that incident justified the Reagan administration’s aggressive policy on Iran and the consequent expansion of American forces in the Persian Gulf.

]]>thillraghuFile:Manufacturing Consent movie poster.jpgThomas Hobbes (portrait).jpgIran Air Flight 655A missile departs the forward launcher of Vincennes during a 1987 exercise. The forward launcher was also used in the downing of Iran Air 655.